Friday, May 22, 2009

Ramesh Ponnuru concentrates the stupid

I yield to few in my admiration for Heather Mac Donald, but if it comes down to an unarmed Mac Donald against a bear I'm betting on the bear. (Jonah: If The Fair Jessica wants to weigh in on the wisdom of going into the Alaskan wilderness without a side-arm, I'd love to hear it.)

I've spent a lot of time in Yosemite - most recently, last weekend - and six summers in central Alaska. In Yosemite, bears are everywhere. There was one about 20 feet from my rock-climbing group on Saturday. They're very dangerous to your cars and your tents if you leave food in them, but they're almost completely non-dangerous to people. Guns in parks translate into drunken idiots in crowded campgrounds, shooting bears that are breaking into cars where the idiots left their food instead of putting the food away in lockers.

As for Alaska, I never had a gun and never needed one. Use some intelligence instead. But if you rely on a gun, what the hell does Ponnuru think a sidearm is going to do to a grizzly bear?

And I think the Corner writers actually get some kind of pay to produce this stuff.